Belgium Rules U.S. Surveillance of SWIFT Data Illegal

On September 27, 2006, the Belgium Privacy Commission ruled that U.S. surveillance of transaction data from the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) was illegal. Reacting to the ruling, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s program “an absolute necessity” and urged U.S. and European negotiators to bring the program into compliance with European law. The Privacy Commission reviewed the U.S. surveillance program at the request of the College for Intelligence and Security (Collège du renseignement et de sécurité), consulting with the EU’s Working Party 29 data protection group. The Working Party 29 group has criticized the lack of transparency in negotiations between EU officials and the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ... [more]